A Young London Poet On Women's Rights

21-year-old London poet Charly Cox has been writing a poem a day for the month of January and posting them to her 30k Instagram followers. Here, we share Charly's poem for today – the day women are marching for their rights across the world as the man who grabs women "by the pussy" takes his seat in the White House.

"Tell Me, Sir" by Charly Cox

Tell me, sirExplain it loud and clearShout your most directExplicit fearsScream them untilThe decibels reach parallelTo the clang and clatter in my heartUntil you can rage each syllableSo pointedly you can throw your voice like a sharpened dartAnd throw it for meSpeak for meTimes those fears by tenThen times them by one hundredAnd one thousand and againKeep multiplying what shakes youUntil it becomes so monstrousSo tangible and noxiousThat it no longer feels like fearIt just feels constantFamiliarMonotonousLike you've spent your life rehearsingFor a nightmareAs the understudyNever quite enough for the partBecause you don't qualify as somebodyLike you've learnt every lineAs though what you feel is fictionAnd you'll never get the lead as someoneWhose script is written with conviction.

Tell me, sirExplain it loud and clearExplain it so loudly my unborn daughter can hearProject your voice into the futureIf you can impregnate me with these lost moralsYou're free to rape me just as quickAnd then what happens if you conceive more than fear ?What happens if I don't want that kid?Your future is bubble wrappedAnd I'm held punishable for it.Try and tell me that you're scaredAs you bang my head on the glass ceilingAnd drag me by my hairThrough statements likeSHE ASKED FOR ITI'm pretty sure I didn't...Pretty sure I'm pretty moreThan a pretty face to be ignored

Tell me, sirExplain it loud and clearBecause I’m lostWandered down too many pathsWith no roads for me safe enough to crossWithout carrying my keys like a weaponBeen employed in so many placesWhere I'm a disposable body on a ladder to step on

Tell me, sirMr, why are your MrsMissing out?Why do you consider us so little ?Who was the man that taught youTo grow into this man so bitterDishing outWhat I can and cannot be?Who was the man that showed you a lesser beingAnd why was that lesser being me?